Mistaken Precedent
by Quicksilver Ink
Summary: AU. The day before the bar exam, Miles finds out just how serious Phoenix is about law - and about their relationship.


Miles rapped his knuckles smartly on Phoenix's door, then waited – at seven AM, he expected it might take a few tries to wake his boyfriend. Behind the door he heard rustling, and a weary "come in, it's open."

"Good morning, Phoenix," he said, stepping into the small apartment. "I've come to - are you actually _studying_already?" he demanded, incredulous.

Phoenix was sitting cross-legged on the terrible ochre couch that had come with his apartment. The floor and coffee table in front of him covered with scattered papers and books, and a stack of notebooks occupied the cushion next to him. He looked up, his face grey and his eyes red. "Yes, Miles, I'm studying. We're taking the Bar Exam tomorrow, you know."

Miles rolled his eyes and stepped further into the apartment, closing the door behind him. "Of course I know," he said acidly. "And you look terrible," he continued in a slightly softer tone. "Don't tell me you've been studying all night?"

"All right, then, I won't." Phoenix turned his attention back to the papers scattered around him, picking up a pencil and underlining a sentence.

"Seriously? You pulled an all-nighter?" Miles demanded.

"Yes." Phoenix flung the pencil down and glared up at his friend. "Is that really so hard to believe?"

Miles sighed. Truth be told, he'd come to wake Phoenix up and drag him out to a coffee shop for breakfast and a little more review before the all-important Tomorrow. But it would do the man no good to work himself into the ground the day before the exam. And why was Phoenix suddenly taking things seriously _now_? "You've had months to study, and you hardly showed this dedication earlier. Changing your habits now will not help, especially if you reduce yourself to a pile of-"

"Shut up, Miles," Phoenix cut in, so bitterly that Miles automatically took a step back, bumping into the door. "Look, I know. I know I'm not that smart, not like you. You don't have to remind me." His voice rose as he continued, "It's not like I've forgotten the difference between our GPAs in law school. And college. And high school. And fucking elementary school, if it comes to that."

"That's not what I was saying," Miles protested. "I'm just saying that-"

"-and I _know_ cramming at the last minute can't even begin to close the gap between us, but _I don't know what else I can do_," Phoenix's last words were practically a howl. In the abrupt silence that followed, Miles felt them echo in his ears.

Phoenix scrubbed at his eyes with his knuckles. "I don't know what to do," he repeated, softly but no less pained.

"Calm down," Miles said, rather desperately himself. They'd known each other for well over a decade, been officially dating since the second year of law school, and he still couldn't cope with Phoenix's tears. Phoenix wore his heart on his sleeve and wasn't afraid to cry, but every time it happened Miles found himself absolutely terrified, wanting desperately to change the universe, if that's what it took, to stop the tears, the hurt, whatever it was... and always having absolutely no idea how to do it."Phoenix! Calm down. Take... take a deep breath."

Phoenix nodded and took a shaky breath, and exhaled slowly.

Miles felt his panic recede, enough that he could step forward and, after navigating the maze of books and papers, take a careful seat on the couch next to Phoenix. He put a tentative arm around his boyfriend, who to his relief didn't shrug it off. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean...well, I was coming to see if you wanted to study, just a little bit. I was expecting to have to drag you out of bed..."

Phoenix gave a wavery chuckle. "I ruined all your plans there, huh? Didn't even go to bed." He leaned into Miles. "Sorry for the outburst. I'm just stressed out by all of this."

"It's understandable," Miles said softly. "And it doesn't help that you haven't slept in how many hours?" He rubbed Phoenix's upper arm gently.

"I took a half-hour nap at eleven," Phoenix mumbled, resting his head on Miles's shoulder. "And another at three or so."

Miles sighed expressively. "That's still not enough sleep."

"Yes, mom."  
>They sat there on Phoenix's unfashionably ochre couch in silence for a while, Miles listening to Phoenix's gradually-slowing breathing. Good, good, he was calming down. There was still plenty of time for Phoenix to get some sleep this morning. They could go to the coffee shop for lunch, instead, study until dinner, and then call it an early night so Phoenix could make up his sleep debt before the exam...<p>

Then there was a hitch, the slightest upset of the rhythmic inhale-exhale, and Miles found himself bracing once more for calamity, disaster, _tears_...

"Miles..." Phoenix said softly, from under his ear. "What happens if I don't pass tomorrow?"

"Then you sign up for another Bar Review and take it again in February," Miles told him, calmly. "It's not the end of the world. Plenty of people who don't pass on the first try do on the second." _One fifth is plenty_, he told himself silently. _I'm not lying just to make him feel better._

"Yes, but... _you'll_pass on the first sitting, still. And you'll go off to a job at some prestigious firm, and I'll... be left behind here."

Miles opened his mouth to refute this, but found he couldn't, not in complete honesty. And that little bending of the truth a moment ago was the furthest he was going to go. "You know I'd take a job in the city if I could, if you're still here studying," he said finally. "And... you know, you don't _have_to be a laywer. There's plenty of things you can do with a law degree even without bar certification, like teaching. Or you could put your double major in fine art to use, and-"

"No!" Phoenix shouted, pushing away. "No, no, no. I have to be a lawyer. I told you that, Miles. I _promised_you we'd be lawyers together. "

Miles blinked. Phoenix was always making ridiculously goofy pledges, but this... Miles was sure he'd have remembered something like this. Sure, they'd joked a bit about what it would be like to have jobs with rival firms after law school, but that was it. "When did you..."

"Sixth grade. At your birthday party. Remember?"

"I..." Miles shook his head, baffled. "Phoenix, we were _children_, you were a _minor_, you couldn't even sign a legal contract, let alone be held to something you simply said. No one would expect-"

Phoenix folded his arms and glared. "I do."

Miles stared at his boyfriend's red eyes and unruly hair, trying to make proper sense of what he was hearing. "You're saying you want to become a lawyer because of something you told me in sixth grade?" he asked, carefully, trying not to sound incredulous.

Phoenix ran a hand through his spikes, putting them in further disarray. "I... guess? Yeah. But not just that. I mean, if you'd moved away after fourth grade and we hadn't been friends all these years, maybe I'd say 'yeah, I was just a kid, I had no idea what I was talking about' and go on and... and become an artist like Larry did. Or whatever." He sighed. "Who knows. But we _have_been together all this time. So..." He ran his hand through his hair again. "I forget exactly where I was going with this. Other than, yeah, I want to keep my promise to you. Um. I really should get some sleep before I embarrass myself any further."

"Sleep would probably be a good idea for you," Edgeworth agreed, mentally shoving aside what Phoenix had just said, to focus on what _did_make sense right now. "Go. Sleep. I'll wake you at noon and we can study over lunch."

"Okay, okay." Phoenix stood up and yawned. "Um... listen, Miles... would you mind staying here, while I sleep?"

"In the apartment? Sure." Miles glanced around the small room, noticing for the first time the cups and plates littered about the place, taking note of the grey carpet that was supposed to be closer to cream. He'd stay and- no, he couldn't run the vacuum if Phoenix was sleeping.

"Thanks." Phoenix peered at him. "You don't _have_to clean my apartment every time you come over, you know."

"I was thinking no such thing," Miles said stiffly.  
>"Sure, sure." Phoenix retreated to the bedroom. He poked his head out a moment later. "Hey, um, Miles?"<p>

"Yes?" Miles replied as he stacked dirty plates. "You need something?"

"No, I... um, I just wanted... well... I know we've only been together a couple years, so I don't want you to feel pressured, if you're not thinking the same way I am about things, about what happens after the bar, and stuff... Um, so, goodnight! I'm going to sleep now."

Miles stood very, very still, watching the closed door that Phoenix had disappeared behind. Eventually he had to put the plates down, because he didn't trust himself not to drop them if his hands started shaking from the realization that right now was shaking his most fundamental assumptions about what Phoenix wanted from life, from their relationship, from _Miles_. Phoenix was a sap, a romantic, and had been for as long as Miles could remember. He'd proclaimed himself to be in love dozens of times throughout high school and college – Miles had gotten so terribly jealous that the last time he'd stolen the would-be girlfriend's necklace from Phoenix and thrown it away, as petty an act as he'd ever committed. As gratifying as it had been when Phoenix had said the L-word to _him_within a week of that awkward conversation (and ensuing make-out session) on this same terribly ochre couch their second year of law school, Miles had not taken it all that seriously.

Certainly not much more than he'd taken Phoenix's claimed desire to be a lawyer seriously, even through three years of law school. Phoenix was easily led, even as a child, always going along with what Miles or Larry suggested, double-majoring presumably only so he could take classes with both of them.

Miles stood up abruptly and brought the plates to the sink. He circled the small apartment several times, gathering dishes, emptying the trash, changing the lightbulb in the kitchen. The mundane tasks made him feel more grounded in reality while his mind spun.

Eventually he ran out of housework to do (at least, without going into the bedroom – strangely enough, the bathroom was spotless), and turned to gathering up Phoenix's scattered books and notes. He stacked them carefully, turning pages at right angles so Phoenix could find the former"top" level papers in case there really was a method to the madness. The open books he flagged with Post-It notes, and then stacked neatly on the coffee table.

With Phoenix asleep and the small apartment clean , there wasn't much else for Miles to do but study. He still had some property law that he wanted to review... but first, he flipped through Phoenix's notes from constitutional law class until he found the case he was looking for.

He settled back on the couch with his copy of Stoebuck and Whitman, leaving the notebook open to the day they'd covered _Perry v. Brown. _

* * *

><p>Notes:<p>

Written for the PWKM. Request was for slice-of-life in a "Miles and Phoenix become defense attorneys together" AU, with more or less the plot here.

The case _Perry v. Brown_ (originally _Perry v. Schwarzenegger_) is the name of the case challenging the constitutionality of Prop 8. At the time this was written it was only at the Appeals Court level, but hey, I can dream, right?


End file.
